Happy 11th Birthday Tay!

Vacation

Last week we went down to Cincinnati for vacation. We went to King's Island and Great Wolf Lodge. Michael rode his first real roller coasters. He was a little unsure while waiting in line, but once we got on he loved them! Taylor rode everything and anything. Taylor's favorite ride was the diamondback. It's the biggest coaster they have. Michael's favorite was boo blasters on boo hill which was a ride where you shoot ghosts, mummys, etc in a haunted house setting. I thought he would have been scared to death. But he was shooting the snot out of those monsters. I could have done without the ride. But it's hard to be afraid of something that your six-year old son is laughing at. :o)Great Wolf Lodge was great. The one in Cincinnati is bigger than the one that's in Sandusky. It was perfect for the kids. There was stuff for each of them. Tay will ride anything! Michael got on some body slides for the first time and then he wouldn't get off them. I think his favorite things was sitting on the fountains that sprang out of the ground through out the park. He's something else that kid.

The kids only stopped for food and potty breaks. So this was the only picture I have where they are "posed". It's a good one!

Michael....my son. That boy is crazy.

And finally a family shot before we went down to the water park. Everyone came home in one piece and had a great time. Thanks to Granpa Jira for watching Meg and Charlie.

Have a good week everyone!

Happy 4th of July!

We just got home from Pennsylvania. We went to Penn State to see their fireworks. They were very good. The kids enjoyed themselves. We also got to see Timmy and Jennelle while we were there. They are expecting their first child in February! We are very excited for them! Hope everyone had a Happy 4th!

Jennelle and me chillin' with our lemonades

The family with Joe Pa! (Joe Paterno, Penn State head coach, for those who aren't Penn State fans)


Mike, Timmy, Tay and Michael

Kiddos in the HOT parking lot in front of Penn State stadium

Have a great week everyone!

Michael's party

Michael had his birthday party with some friends Friday, which was his actual birthday.

The party was at the bowling alley close to our house. He had a blast!

Enjoy the pictures!Make a wish!
Michael and Mom

Cheese!

He's getting too big.

Tay, Mike, Katie and Grace. Katie and Grace are my friend, Melissa's kids. For those of you

who remember, Gracie is the one who used to chase Michael around the house and tell me how "hot" he was. :o)

Hope everyone is doing well.

Have a great week!

Happy Birthday Michael!!!!

Michael is 6!!!

He is having a bowling party with his friends today. So I will have pictures up later of the party. He is growing up very fast!

Happy Birthday MICHAEL!

June

Well the kids are out of school and ready for summer. Michael has been playing t-ball and loving it! He's still trying to get the hang of it but he's not too shabby. Taylor starts back swimming this Thursday and is excited. Mike and I are the same as always...work, sleep, repeat.

Taylor was just recently diagnosed with juvenile rheumatoid arthritis. She was having some pain and swelling in her knuckles and ankle. Doctors ran some tests and think she will grow out of it. She is on a daily anti-inflammatory. She will have blood tests, x-rays, eye exams and plenty of doctor visits in her future. The good news is that the medicine seems to be helping her. She says her knuckles still hurt some but not near as much. She is also not dropping things like before or having a hard time writing anymore. The doctors said swimming is great therapy for her. So we are good on that end because she's a fish. :) Well, that's all for now. Keep Tay in your thoughts. Enjoy the pics below of my little slugger.

He looks so professional in this picture. Ready for the big leagues!

More Charlie pictures

Update

This month we lost Jake, our black lab. He was 9 years old. It was very sad. Also, this month I had a surgical breast biopsy. Talk about scary. Mike and I were on pins and needles all month from that. The biopsy came back that the cysts I have are benign. I have to keep having ultrasounds every 6 months just to keep an eye on things. When I got the news I felt like a 100 pounds had been lifted off me. Things were pretty tense around here to say the least.

Now on to the good stuff.....

Meet Charlie! He is our new 7 week old chocolate lab. He is very sweet. He had 9 chocolate brothers that I got to sit down and play with. They were so cute! When Mike and I went to pick one out, Charlie came up to me and sat down in front of me. Then he put one little paw on my leg and I was done for. :o)
The kids absolutely love Charlie.


Taylor has become Charlie's Momma. She takes excellent care of him. He loves her too. If she goes upstairs, he sits at the bottom of the steps and whines.

I will put some other pics up here shortly. Have to run Charlie out..... :)

Spring Update

It's been awhile since I've put up a post so I thought I would give everyone an update. March was pretty boring. Work, school, sleep, repeat....

April so far has been fun. I had an EXCELLENT birthday! I got 5 beads for my Pandora bracelet. Went out to dinner with my Dad, lunch with my Mom, dinner with Mike, and lunch with Beth. I also got a beautiful "embrace" necklace from Mike and the kids. This was one birthday I'll remember for awhile. Easter was fun for the kids. The Easter bunny went overboard (AGAIN) this year. Michael has started with his questioning again...."Mom is there REALLY an Easter bunny?". When he was pulling things out of his basket, he kept saying,"Thanks Mom!". :o)

The kids have to find their baskets. Taylor's was in the mud room.




Michael's basket was in the bathroom.

This month I finished Michael's blanket. I made Taylor a blanket last month. I pretty much taught myself to crochet. It's not as hard as what I thought it would be. It still gets my temper going once in awhile when I have to rip out row/rows of work. :o)

These are just pics of Michael's blanket. Nothing fancy, but he likes it. The kids are on Spring Break this week so we are trying to do something everyday. Mostly we are just outside playing, riding bikes or going to the park. It's nice to have them home and to be able to spend time with them. With my new job, sometimes I feel like I don't get to see them very much. Well, I guess that's it. Hope everyone is doing well. Happy Spring!

Monster trucks and SNOW

Michael watching the rc cars play around at the Monster Truck Jam

You know Michael.... He had to have the Grave Digger hat.

This picture is a little dark but it's Meg in the snow. The snow is almost all the way up the her belly. If you've seen Meg, you know that's pretty deep.

Here's little Luna. The snow is obviously taller than she is...she tried to go in the snow but Mike had to pull her out because she fell in and got stuck. :o)

And last, this is what I came out to after work the morning we got all the snow.... I had to dig my van out. The snow was half-way up the tires on the driver side. The front and back of the van was up over my boots, so mid-calf. It took an hour and 10 minutes for me to get home when it normally takes 33 minutes.

Hope everyone is enjoying all the snow.

Misc. Pics

Below is a picture of me with some of the girls from my Girl Scout Troop.

We went bowling on Sunday.

Just some pics of me and my kiddos...

Have a good day everyone!

Happy Birthday Papa!

Michael's Request

Michael wanted me to put this picture up of him and "The Bestest Mom in the WHOOOOOLE Universe!" So of course I couldn't say no. The picture is a little dark but... I love it. Hope everyone has a good day!

Happy New Year

We rang the new year in with some friends this year. The kids each had someone to play with and they all stayed up to watch the ball drop. At midnight we all shot off some confetti poppers and blew our horns. The kids LOVED it!

Our friends, Becca and Nick, and us

Taylor and Sophie

Tay, Sophie, Michael and Nathan

Michael and Nathan

Mike and me-this is New Years #16 for us.

Michael being....well Michael.


Again....he's my child so I guess I can expect this from him. He is saying "Peace Baby!" in the picture.

This is why I keep him :0)

Tay and me

Happy New Year everyone!